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Babies Know What’s Up
New York Magazine: Babies as young as 13 months seem to be able to follow the complexities of a tense social situation, even showing surprise when those involved don't behave as expected, suggests a new paper in Psychological Science. You-jung Choi and Yuyan Luo of the University of Missouri did their research by putting on a simple puppet show for 48 infants and their parents. ... Choi and Luo were curious: How would the babies react to subsequent interactions between puppets A and B, and how would those reactions differ according to which version of the show the babies had seen? Obviously, the 13-month-olds couldn't tell the researchers what they were thinking.
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Transgender children aren’t confused about their gender identity, study finds
Fox News: An ongoing longitudinal study of transgender children and their siblings has revealed that these youths have a strong understanding of their gender identity. The paper’s findings, published in the February edition of the journal Psychological Science, counter the belief that transgender children are confused about their gender or are too young to understand what gender means. “We found that gender cognition in the transgender kids was indistinguishable from their non-transgender peers and siblings,” study author Nicholas Eaton, an assistant psychology professor at Stony Brook University in New York, said in a news release.
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Madam C.E.O., Get Me a Coffee
The New York Times: LATE one Friday afternoon at a leading consulting firm, a last-minute request came in from a client. A female manager was the first to volunteer her time. She had already spent the entire day meeting with junior colleagues who were seeking career advice, even though they weren’t on her team. Earlier in the week, she had trained several new hires, helped a colleague improve a presentation and agreed to plan the office holiday party. When it came time for her review for partner, her clear track record as a team player combined with her excellent performance should have made her a shoo-in. Instead, her promotion was delayed for six months, and then a year. ...
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Trying to Be Less Stupid: The Hard Work of Brain Science
National Geographic: Michael Gazzaniga was still a graduate student when he helped make one of the most intriguing discoveries of modern neuroscience: that the two hemispheres of the brain not only have different functions, but also operate independently—the so-called split-brain phenomenon. A lover of fine wine and conversation, Gazzaniga, today a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is also that rarity: a scientist whose life and work cross over into the humanities.
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The Prius as an Oddly-Shaped Status Symbol
The Atlantic: The mid-2000s Toyota Prius was a weird-looking box of metal: Viewed from the front, it sloped upward with swollen curves. From the back, it was chunky and pug-nosed. But from a marketing perspective, the Prius’s visual oddness was a selling point. While other car companies designed their hybrid vehicles to blend in with the inoffensive smoothness of the typical midsize car, Toyota sculpted the Prius to stand out. Its aesthetic distinctiveness is one reason for the car’s success in the past decade: In 2010, nearly half of all hybrids sold in the U.S. were Priuses.
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Sound of Intellect: The Psychology of the Elevator Pitch
The Huffington Post: Richard Nelson Bolles, a former Episcopal pastor, decided to self-publish his advice for job hunters in 1970, in the midst of a tough job market for newly minted college graduates. The handbook, What Color Is Your Parachute?, immediately gained popularity by word of mouth and was soon on its way to the bestseller list. In the decades since, it has become the bible for young professionals entering the world of work. It has been revised almost every year and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.
